Philanthropy’s Focus on the Southern U.S. Border Crisis Is Urgent

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As Americans gear up for the holidays, a humanitarian crisis continues to unfold at our nation’s border. Over the next few months, an estimated 6,000 individuals — children, women, and families — will continue to arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border after having walked through treacherous conditions for months at a time. Parents on this dangerous trek are aware of the grave risk they expose their families to: crossing rivers swollen from rain, extreme heat, lack of food and shelter, and the toll on the human body. However, the violence they face in their home countries far outweighs these risks.

In recent weeks, we have seen tensions rise at the San Diego–Tijuana border, where hundreds of Central American migrants — including women and children — are fleeing from violent attacks in Tijuana, Mexico, enveloped in tear gas and hit with rubber bullets.

While the images of children being kept in cages from the summer have faded from the headlines, the reality is that every day hundreds of asylum seekers fleeing the worst of conditions arrive at our borders. Nearly half of the exodus is made up of women and children with little access to food, water, or safe places to sleep, according to the Central America and Mexico Migration Alliance , a Hispanics in Philanthropy project based in Mexico.